Our Father Who Art in Heav...Our Mind :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Our Father Who Art in Heav...Our Mind Be careful when you mention your religious experiences or any supernatural experiences that you have had with God, the gods, or the universe. The person that you report them to may quickly reduce your experiences to a simple decrease or increase in electrical activity within specific parts of your brain. While you may believe that your experiences are as real as the piercing sound of your alarm, waking you from your blissful "flying" dreams, you should know that the research performed and documented by scientists, concerning the experience of God, is also real. Have you ever heard the professed beliefs that Moses, who spoke to the Christian God for the first time through an angel in a flaming fire in a bush, and several times afterwards in the Old Testament of the Bible, was a sufferer of temporal lobe epilepsy? (1). Thus, his experiences with God were, merely, figments of his imagination, or more scientifically, over-activity within the temporal lobes of his brain. To the Christian, including myself, this belief sounds absurd. How can one reduce what is deemed Holy to an organic brain dysfunction? The neurobiological bases of religious experiences has not only been researched through examination of temporal lobe epileptic seizures, but it has also been researched in the meditative states and prayer sessions of Tibetan monks and Franciscan nuns, respectively (5).) This paper seeks to present and examine some scientific observations that link the experience of God (thus, surpassing the argument that God exists), and the changes in neurological activity that occur during these experiences. Prior to taking this course in neurobiology and behavior, I firmly believed that the brain equals behavior and that additional experiences of the mind and soul arose from the multitude of activity within the brain. However, I still questioned my assumption that the soul lies within the brain. Subsequently, I came across a Newsweek article titled "Searching For t he God Within," respectively (5).) The article presents the research of Dr. Andrew Newberg and his research team. He and his team examined the brain activity of Tibetan Monks during their peak transcendent state during which they say they experience a oneness with the universe. Upon examination of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images of a resting brain and a meditative brain, Dr. Newberg concluded that there was a noticeable difference in the activity of the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain (7).